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Techdept launches ‘Marketing Tech Masterclass’ course…
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The marketing technology innovation company, Techdept has developed a free 14-day ‘Marketing Tech Masterclass’ online course designed to provide an easily understandable introduction for traditional marketers and business leaders looking to explore the digital platform.

Launched a few weeks ago, the course has already gained 700 participants and modules covered throughout include; ‘Using Data’, Culture, Millenials and the Open Business System’, ‘Destressing Developments’ and ‘Buzzword roundup’.

Co-founder and CEO, Dan Kirby, said: “When you work in digital marketing its easy to take for granted that everyone knows what you know. The truth is that, for many business professionals, staying up to speed with new tech is really hard, and if you feel behind the curve you’re not alone. This creates a problem for those of us in the field of marketing technology, as many people are just a bit confused by the subject, hampering our efforts to win new business.”

He continued: “That’s why we’ve created this free 14-day programme of insights and ideas, which should help anyone better understand this new world. All the content is based on our hands-on experiences and direct insights learnt while working with leading brands, and within our own company and technology investments.”

You can sign up to the Marketing Tech Masterclass here

Forum News: The hidden costs of exhibiting at trade shows…
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Without the knowledge of other costs involved, the £2000 stand you’ve just booked at your industry trade show looks like a really inexpensive way of generating new business. But is it really justifiable?

Assuming you have just bought a stand and shell scheme, you will still need to consider the following costs:

  • Show services such as lighting and electrics. These facilities are often controlled by the event organisers and can be costly. Also add on furniture hire, even carpeting. Estimated cost: £500-£1000.
  • Then there’s transportation, moving the whole stand together with any literature and other equipment, all will need to be transported to and from the show with another £500 added on to the bill.
  • Paramount to any trade show exhibition is advertising and other promotional materials which can amount to more than £1000. It’s all very well having a lovely brochure, but be aware of the cost of handing them out.
  • Once the stand and everything else is up and running, your staff will need feeding. Five staff members with breakfast, lunch and dinner over the average three days is not cheap.
  • When the exhibition is finally over, the charges keep on coming with clear up costs. Make sure you take your rubbish and leftovers with you or you may well get charged; and if your site is damaged in any way, it will more than likely result in an invoice.
  • Making sure you acquire an adequate insurance policy, not only for your goods on display, but also liability insurance should anyone hurt themselves while on your stand is crucial. And that’s not cheap either, with an expected £150 or more price tag.
  • You’re not finished yet; personnel is considered as one of the biggest costs of an exhibition. In addition, the extra £1,000 an employer will have to pay staff for longer hours, other costs such as accommodation, food, travel and parking also come into the equation.

 

Look at all the leads we’ve got…

The mountain of business cards you’ve collected; the dozens of quotations you were asked to supply after the event; the hours of organising them and calculating estimates; these are time consuming – as is following them up.

Then there are the decision-makers you met, or were scheduled to meet. Did they even show up to the event? If they did bother to put on an appearance, did they find your booth; did you get the chance to sit down and talk?

Are marketers acquiring enough value from customer data?
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According to new joint research published by B2B Marketing and Avention, just 21 per cent of B2B marketers believe their organisations are getting the most out of customer data; in addition, 67 per cent of the 100 B2B marketers surveyed in the ‘Can marketers see what’s coming next?’ report admitting to not extracting sufficient value from the data they have pertaining to customer purchases, preferences and activities.

Furthermore, regarding the reasons behind these failures, 34 per cent claimed to regret their lack of accuracy in the data sets; and 33 per cent said some of the data collected was not appropriately recorded.

Head of content at B2B marketing, Alex Aspinall, said: “This should be the primary concern for anyone struggling to make headway with the data challenge: disparate data sets are of use to no one.

He continued: “A concerted effort is required from everyone involved with the recording, analysis and retrieval of customer data within an organisation to be singing from the same hymn sheet. Inter-departmental alignment on data practices and processes must be established, and respected, if progress is to be made in this area.”

Download the full report here

B2B marketers can assess ‘video body language’ with new tool…
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The video intelligence platform for businesses, Vidyard, has introduced its new ‘Engage’ tool that claims to ‘extend the power’ of video beyond marketing to sales, support, customer success and other teams across an organisation.

Primarily targeted to B2B marketers, the tool allows a follow up email video sent via Gmail or Outlook email to reach a potential customer; the same methodology as attaching a PDF or Word document file. Therefore, the tool will then notify the sender of what content was viewed; how long it was viewed and which parts were skipped or replayed.

Co-founder and CEO of Vidyard, Michael Litt, said: “Video is the most effective way to connect with modern B2B buyers, and it can also offer incredible insight into the interests and intent of each individual viewer.”

He continued: “Despite its success as a strategic marketing tool, video remains an untapped resource for helping sales reps close more deals or building better relationships with existing clients. We’re addressing this head-on by making it simple for customer-facing teams to share key video assets from right inside their inbox and use viewer engagement data to better understand their audience.”

Read more about Vidyard’s product offering here

Guest Blog, Rupert Harrison: Moving mobile for email marketing…
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In a prevalent ‘mobile first’ society, Rupert Harrison, planning director at Zeta Interactive, explains the rise of its incorporation into email marketing, and how marketers and brands should be cautious in monitoring its engagement level, the design and how it will fit into the overall ‘marketing mix’.

We live in a ‘mobile first’ world. Take a look at any bus stop or queue for the bank and the majority of people will have their mobile phone in hand. It’s no surprise that 50 per cent of consumers use email ‘on-the-go’, according to the DMA Email Tracking Study 2015. That means that half of brands’ email interactions with consumers are on mobile, so it’s important to get it right.

But the hype around ‘mobile first’ has led many brands to oversimplify their thinking when it comes to mobile engagement. Yes, mobile creates the opportunity for brands to target customers in any place, at any time – but email marketing via mobile is so much more than a one-way route into consumers’ pockets.

It goes without saying that email design must be responsive to mobile devices, so that the customer experience is as good as possible when the message is viewed on mobile. However, it is also critical that marketers make good use of the data available to them to understand the context within which content is consumed, and deliver the right messages accordingly.

Striking the right tone

Mobile takes the relationship between brands and consumers to a new level of intimacy. Email marketing is already a very personal medium: as a means of delivering highly personalised content, it is the real definition of one-to-one marketing. But brands can derive powerful insights by looking at location and device type, as well as time of day, dwell times and interaction rates – allowing them to make their communications hyper-relevant to every customer.

Of course, this is a good thing. But such intimacy can quickly turn invasive if it misses the mark, and marketing that is poorly targeted or overbearing can feel particularly intrusive for customers. True personalisation is speaking softly to an audience, not yelling in their ear.

Over half (51 per cent) of consumers believe that just one-30 per cent of emails are relevant or interesting, according to the DMA; a figure that has risen steadily over the past four years. And consumers do unsubscribe from brands that no longer interest them, or if their content is inappropriate or uninspiring. By smarter targeting and better understanding of the customer mind-set and situation when they are engaging on mobile devices, marketers can improve engagement and reduce the cost of getting it wrong.

Moments of insight

But mobile gives brands the opportunity to go further and use the channel as an ‘early alert system’ providing insights for a wider marketing campaign.  Think of mobiles as mini ‘vote now’ devices and you get the picture.  The ‘moments of insight’ afforded by these interactions can be fed into a segmentation engine that allows brands to target their customers in a more intimate way.

So, businesses need to be wary of placing too much emphasis on ‘mobile first’, take a step back and think smartly about where mobile engagement fits into the overall marketing mix. Only by thinking in more holistic terms can brands ensure they make the most of the “moving target” opportunity.

 

Rupert Harrison is the planning director at Zeta Interactive. He has extensive experience of data driven communications and customer journey planning across direct, digital, social and offline and has worked at a wide range of companies, including POSSIBLE, News UK and most recently as head of comms planning at VCCPme.

Zeta Interactive is a digital marketing and smart data company working with over 250 brands worldwide.  It was recognised as one of the 50 most promising private companies by Forbes in 2014 and has featured twice in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Marketing Hubs. 

Industry Spotlight: We caught up with Click Consult at the Internet Marketing Summit
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The Internet Marketing Summit took place on the 9th May 2016 at the Grange Tower Bridge Hotel in London and was once again, a huge success. The Summit boasted keynote speakers, senior decision-makers from some of the biggest brands and the most innovative product and service providers in digital marketing for a day of match made face-to-face meetings, educational seminars and networking.

We caught up with Click Consult’s senior business development manager, James Price, to find out why they are back at the event for the 7th time.

So, how are you finding the event so far today?

In terms of today, for myself, it’s actually been really, really positive, the meetings have all been very good, very well-qualified people that actually want to speak to [Click Consult] about their needs for our products and services – it’s always been the case here, it’s why we come here so much. It’s been very, very good and personally I’ve always have a good return on investment from these events.

What do you think of the quality of delegates this year and last? At all events you have attended?

If I could have planned it, I couldn’t have planned it any better to be honest, they all wanted exactly what we’ve got and they’ve all really responded – I suppose some of that is down to our process as well as an agency but they’ve really responded to the conversations that we’ve had and I think there will be a lot of follow-up, more than any other event I’ve done for a while actually.

Have you received any business from attending these events?

Yes – we have definitely had business from Forum Events which is why we come back. We won’t do these things if there’s no ROI, we’re a business and if there’s no ROI then we won’t do it; we certainly make enough to pay for the event and get some profit as well, I mean we’ve got some of our biggest clients from these events.

Have you had any fast turnarounds?

Yes, we’ve had a couple – not many – because how I see these events and how they are marketed; it’s a case of getting to know people and starting a relationship. I mean we have had some pretty quick turnarounds as well, but mostly it’s been good long-term business that we’ve gotten from them.

Do you attend trade shows or exhibitions?

We used to invest heavily into trade shows. It was really good for a number of years, certainly when I first joined the company. But I think the quality has now gone down, I think where we’ve moved to as an agency we tend to deal with brands pretty much exclusively now – and the place we meet brands is here so that’s why we choose to come – it fits our profile as a business.

Do you find this format more effective than a trade show or exhibition?

Absolutely, yes. [Trade shows] were very good when it was a lot easier back in the old days because you would come away with contracts from them and it was that easy. But now you have to immerse yourself into your clients business and become a part of it. And with greatest respect in the world, if you go to a trade show, you meet junior members of staff who don’t have decision-making power; the advantage of these kinds of events is you are meeting decision-makers who actually make the final decision, so it’s a good way to start that relationship and it helps us immerse ourselves into their business and their brand as well.

Will you be back next year?

Yes, I don’t see why not.


Founded in 2003, Click Consult is an award-winning agency specialising in SEO and PPC. For more information on Click Consult and the products and services they provide, please click here.  

The next Internet Marketing Summit will be taking place on 8th May 2017 at the Grange Tower Bridge Hotel, London. To register your interest for this exclusive event, please click here.

Forum News: 10 ways to succeed at networking events…
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Walking into an event room full of people you don’t know can be a scary experience. However, there are proven ways to conquer this fear and make networking an enjoyable and a useful process to do business. Here, we share 10 of the best practices to eradicate those networking nerves.

1. Plan ahead: Try to obtain the attendee list in advance and highlight the people you would like to meet. On arrival, contact the event organiser and say who you are trying to connect with. If they get the chance, an introduction between yourself and the other party will be made upon arrival. It might also be beneficial to go to the registration area to ask if one of your selected visitors has arrived.

2. Get there early: If you are one of the first to arrive, it is much easier to strike up a conversation with a small group of people.

3. Most people are in the same position: If you do not know anyone else attending, it’s good to prepare a few opening questions: ‘Any particular presentation you’re looking forward to hearing today?’; ‘What brought you to this event?’

4. Join a group: Approaching a group of attendees already in full conversation is a daunting prospect. So be bold, confident, and simply ask: “May I join the conversation? I’ve just arrived and I’m keen to learn what’s going on.”

5. Build interesting conversation: Ask topical and relevant questions to the specific event. Be a good listener and don’t dominate the conversation with your own stories and business ideas.

6. Be helpful: Share your knowledge of the industry, your contacts and sources of information. If people perceive you as an experienced and knowledgeable professional, they will want to keep in contact and maintain a relationship.

7. Use your business card as a tactical weapon: I have a friend who renovates old wooden floors, so his business card is made of a thin piece of wood and has proven to be a guaranteed conversation starter. Be imaginative with the design and the job title displayed. Anything that says ‘sales’ or ‘business development’ could cause people to fear a sales pitch is on the way. So try and think of a job title that encourages a productive conversation.

8. Receiving business cards: Be sure to make notes on the back to remind you of the conversation and the person. This could become much use in future interactions.

9. Following up: If you engaged in constructive conversation with an attendee and have agreed to follow up after the event, then set a preferred method of contact and make sure to do so promptly.

10. What not to do: Sales pitches, even if you’re asked ‘what does your company do’, keep your answer to a very brief explanation. Don’t ‘work the room’ rushing from group to group as this is not the way to form business relationships. It’s better to have had four good conversations than a dozen meaningless chats.

 

Words by Paul Rowney, Director at Forum Events Ltd.

Facebook beats its rivals to become number one for B2B purchasing info…
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Beating tough competition from the likes of LinkedIn and Twitter, Facebook has been voted as the number one social platform for B2B marketers to find information to aid sector purchasing decisions.

The joint ‘Changing Face of Influence‘ report conducted by the global communications and PR agency, Hotwire, Active Digital Marketing Communications and technology market research provider, Vanson Bourne, found that out of 1,000 B2B decision-makers, 24 per cent actively choose Facebook as their main source in finding purchasing information; compared to 17 per cent preferring to use LinkedIn.

Group head of engagement at Hotwire, John Brown, commented: “Social media has eroded these divides and created an environment where what matters is how compelling the story is, not where decision makers see the story. We need to stop making assumptions about what our audience want and allow research and insight to guide how we create multichannel campaigns. B2B businesses who ignore channels because they view them as only being for consumers are in for a rude shock when they realise no one cares about the channels they’ve lovingly invested in.”

Download the full report here

‘Dark Social’ most popular in sharing publishing and marketing content…
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A study from the San Francisco-based digital advertising company, RadiumOne, has revealed that 80 per cent of UK mobile clickbacks evolve via ‘Dark Social’ channels, such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, compared to 23 per cent of content being shared via public social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

The company analysed the actions of 940 million global users – pinpointing the UK’s social content sharing activity – who shared content from sources where RadiumOne’s sharing software is utilised.

European managing director at RadiumOne, Rupert Staines, said: “Dark Social is a big piece of the sharing universe. This interest and intent data source is particularly powerful when it comes to mobile, where the majority of interacting with shared content is occurring. The opportunity for brands is to track, gather and activate these valuable signals to connect their owned and earned media investments with paid media effectiveness.”

RadiumOne’s worldwide figures found that ‘Dark Social’ content sharing is also popular outside the UK, with 84 per cent of all sharing is happening through this medium.

 

ANA: B2B marketers need to ‘step up’ their game in order to succeed…
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The US-based Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has concluded from their recent research that marketers specialising in the B2B sector have a duty to uphold strong leadership skills and ‘deep’ marketing experience in order to drive brand awareness, customer loyalty and ‘play a key role’ in sales operations.

The online survey, which was conducted in partnership with the market and consumer information group, GFK and represented 237 B2B professionals, found that 39 per cent believe their roles are to ensure that the voice of the customer shapes the business strategy and to bring expert marketing competencies to the table. However, marketers also indicated that they are struggling to be viewed as important and strategic assets; fearing that all efforts made are viewed only as an extension of their companies’ sales divisions.

CEO and president of the ANA, Bob Liodice, said: “Our study shows that B2B marketers have much to offer, but that message is not getting through to the right people within their own organisations. These marketers need to implement growth leadership initiatives, put forth a clear vision of their brands, and develop strategies to remove barriers.”

The survey also found that only 42 per cent hold a position the ‘top management’ board of a company, and 37 per cent of respondents enjoy strong recommendation from senior management. Meanwhile, 35 per cent claim that senior management professionals are highly focused on the product and price; ignoring customer insights.

Read more on the research, including the ANA’s top recommendations, here